The F35 is one of the most advanced fighters of its time, with the most expensive military program to date. Yet, it seems that as with all technology, it is not immune to malfunctions. Recently, a F35, more specifically an F35B, which is the US Marine Corps version of the F35. One with VTOL or STOVAL capabilities also known as short takeoff and vertical landing or vertical take off and landing. This is by far the most expensive version of the F35 and so it seems to hurt the Arms forces the most than if any other jet crashed with its recent destruction.
Flight reports indicate that the pilot had safely ejected however the plane did not go down for quite a while. In the police call the pilot made to local PD, he claimed that he no longer knew where the plane had gone as weather did not allow for it. Another problem for the US Armed Forces is the fact that they were trying to find a 5th generation plane. The 5th generation is known for their stealth capabilities and so the search for the aircraft was decently long compared to civilian aircraft crashes.
This recent plane crash could have complications around the world, although America is the one who built these aircraft and did all the research. Many other countries are buying this aircraft, one major buying is Britain. This accident could have huge implications on orders of the F35 and the contracts already established between Lockheed martin and other countries. One such example is the Boeing 737 Max. This plane is infamous for its crashes months after its introduction. The plane had such a bad reputation, it was grounded by most of the world for months as Boeing tried to find and fix the problem, which by the way, culminated from large corruption within the FAA and Boeing executives.
Similarly to the 737’s grounding, the US Marine Corps has issued a grounding of all F35B’s within its fleet pending investigation of the crash. The F35 already has a huge negative press with cost overruns and delays. Whether this outcome further negatively affects the reputation of the F35 and its flightworthiness is up to the investigation along with if countries such as Britain or Japan continue their contracts of purchasing the F35 for their airfleets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/business/boeing-737-accidents.html
3 comments:
Wow, I remember reading about the incident with the Boeing 737 crashes. This situation seems really similar. I can only imagine what kind of political and economic issues would arise. I did some quick research and it seems that Lockheed Martin's stock has already seen some rapid consequences. Since the incident, Lockheed Martin's stock has dropped nearly 13%. A Fortune 500 company like Lockheed Martin spells out major disasters within the company. Furthermore, as you stated, corruption between executives and officials within the company ( a reason behind the poor construction of the Boeing 737) could prove to be a problem again. If this is true, how do politics play a role in the way executives and officials are elected in Lockheed Martin?
As the F35 is a US-made aircraft selling internationally, I predict a large-scale drop in the credibility of US aircraft. Not only is the second incident but also a military-level plane. If military-level planes cannot operate safely, I believe other countries would be extremely hesitant to purchase them--spelling out further economic trouble for the US.
Overall, I feel that this disaster is something that could spell out a large downturn in the aerospace economy in the US and also the credibility of the US as a aircraft manufacturer.
The F35 project has been a disappointment from beginning to end but I don't see that impacting sales given that the US has committed to the platform for the next half century or so.
It took a while to find the plane as it crashed to the ground in a rural area relatively far from base, and in those hours, conservative conspiracy theorists came up with some photo in Havana as part of a claim that a woke military service member had defected to Cuba and delivered the F35 full of newer tech to the Chinese. Somehow or other the "missing" plane reflected poorly on Biden. Pretty much every piece of incomplete news is twisted in advance by the propaganda engine of the right, which has unmeasurable but negative downstream effects on the overall political discourse. I guess I knew that feeding the trolls was part of the ongoing insurrection, but I was surprised at the level of stupid just one click away from my otherwise well curated news feed.
I agree - I think the F35 has been one of the militaries largest "failures". Costing 100-140 million a piece, its one of the most expensive aircrafts we have. Even the current F35 we have right now is still more of a VERY expensive prototype rather than the functioning aircraft with all the perks the air force said it would come with. The fact that a 140 million dollar aircraft is still malfunctioning like this and stopping shipments to other countries highlights the problems of our military spending. Costing taxpayers of 2 trillion dollars over the course of the programs life, the cost in proportion to the product is just not worth it. The money could be more effectively and efficiently used to make more impactful change.
I do wonder how the government is going to play this out in the media. I would not be surprised if they tried to make this aircraft seem like some spectacular achievement. While it has all the technical advancements to make it a gen one aircraft, it exposes our government to the ridiculous blank checks they write to military contractors for military spending. People will start to get upset that these blank checks come from tax payer money and will start to reject the idea of expensive military R&D.
In summary I think that this expensive mistake will make people realize how expensive these new gen one aircrafts are and will make the F35 a public humiliation for the government.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/18/politics/f-35-missing-jet-what-matters/index.html#:~:text='Failure%20at%20the%20conceptual%20level'&text=The%20jet%20has%20never%20reached,prototype%2C%E2%80%9D%20Grazier%20told%20me.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2021/02/23/the-us-air-force-just-admitted-the-f-35-stealth-fighter-has-failed/?sh=16bab17a1b16
https://www.defensenews.com/smr/hidden-troubles-f35/
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